Merry Christmas!
HUH? Well, as of November 12th, it is Christmas at Disneyland ;-)  Crazy I know but, at least by me, not unwelcome. DL is so pretty at Christmas time. Especially if there's a bit of a chill in the air. A person can almost convince themselves that California has a winter.
 
We were headed back to Haunted Mansion and ran into Jack Skellington! G still hasn't seen the movie but she loves him.

Ever since I picked this dress up for G on a sample sale like 6 mos ago I couldn't wait to take her to see Santa at DL! I know, my life is so exciting. Haha! They have the big man set up in the ranch area at something they're calling Jingle Jangle Jamboree. Since we were there on a friday the week before Thanksgiving it wasn't too surprising to me that there weren't many people there. I think at one point we may have been the only family at the Jamboree which included a few Santa/reindeer themed games, activities and characters. It was nice because it gave G plenty of time with Santa. He admired her dress, talked to her a bit about what she wanted for Christmas, etc. So cute!

Our official Santa pic

Doing the princess twirl.

The characters were really cute in their holiday wear.

They had coloring so needless to say we spent a considerable time doing that.

Mickey was looking very dapper in his holiday finery

I have no idea why Liver Lips was there. He's kind of creepy looking, don't you think?

Then Wendell... super creepy!

Decorating the $6 cookie


Georgie the pink-nosed reindeer!

Our traditional photo in front of the Partners statue. Even though the DL castle pales in comparison to its WDW counterpart it does look pretty with the rooftop "snow"

G held her skirt out for just about every single photo. She's such a goof. All the characters had a good time finding themselves on the pattern of the skirt.

Later in the day we saw Mickey again. He must have decided to slip into something more comfortable than the top hat

Character hunting G was happy to encounter White Rabbit. I think this was the first time we'd ever gotten him.

By this point, although we'd only been there about 4.5 hrs, we'd ridden many of G's favorite rides twice, seen tons of characters and heard more Christmas music than you can imagine. This was one of the big perks of going during the week on a day that forecasted rain. G wasn't ready to leave but I assured her we'd be back the following week for more fun!

Robin Hood
They were doing it at a small theater that's part of the Segerstrom complex. So cute! This was true children's theater. The kids were encouraged to yell out to help the characters and cheer for the good guys and boo the bad guys. Plus, the show was only 65 mins long and still included an intermission :-) Georgie absolutely loved it!

G's been to a lot of theater. And, she's a pretty mature kid for being just under 5 yrs old but sometimes something will happen or she'll say something that makes me realize how much of a little girl she is. At one point in the show, the Sheriff of Notthingham falls onto his knife and dies. I whispered to Georgie "oh, he died". G turned to me and with all sincerity and monumental concern whispered back "for real?"

Sweet baby.

With Robin. They're all wearing clown noses because the premise of the performance is that they were a group of traveling clowns who needed to present a show to make money to buy food. Sounds odd now but it made sense at the time :-)

G's attempt at a scary face with (the very much alive) Sheriff Nottingham

Georgie's favorite, Maid Marion!

We have another two shows. After this experience we're looking forward to them!

Wreck it Ralph opening
We'd been lucky enough to meet Ralph and Vanellope at Disneyland a week or so ago. But, like everyone else with a TV, we'd seen the trailers for the movie and Georgie was excited about it. Like they do for just about every opening they had a special event at El Capitan... yeah!

Bobby wasn't sure until the day before if he'd be able to join us so it was just G and me for the character breakfast with Vanellope. Friends Tanya, Jerry, Gracie and Kyle also joined us for the movie.

The movie itself was really cute! Truthfully, it was better than I thought it was going to be. There was lots of action, a cute and easy to follow story line, plenty of humor, and even a few tear jerker moments. Georgie really liked it! She munched her popcorn and giggled and had a good old time.

Later we headed over to what has become our favorite after-movie spot: Johnny Rockets for some greasy food and ice cream :-)

G made sure I remembered to take our traditional marquee photo. Finally the construction work they were doing is done. How cute is G in her Wreck it Ralph tshirt and Hello Kitty shoes??

In the movie Vanellope is a character from a candy themed video game called Sugar Rush. Naturally the theming for the decor was candy! Perfect for Halloween time don't you think?

Finally, Mickey is back outside in front of the soda fountain where he belongs!!!

At breakfast G just could not understand why oh why she couldn't eat the candy from the centerpiece.

After a quick bite...

it was finally time to meet Vanellope (again). I hadn't noticed the last time but now that I look at her she's a bit scary in the face. Anyway, she dances and jumps around so G thought she was awesome!

Girls!

This is G perusing the Ralph merchandise. She'd met an achievement on the way to the movie --well timed on my part so she could choose her reward at the movie. Score one for mom!

G with her prized Vanellope stuffy!

For some reason, and I have no idea why, these stilt walkers were in front of the theater. Eh, its Hollywood Blvd, who the heck knows what's going on half the time!

Before the movie they did a cute stage pre-show. They asked some of the kids to come up and participate but G was being "shy" that day.

With a pile of popcorn in her lap and her 3d glasses placed askew on her cute little face, G was ready to "wreck it!"

Gracie and Georgie spent a good bit of time after the movie playing this ball game they had set up in the basement. There was also a display of some of the props and models from the movie. Its really quite amazing the amount of work that goes into creating an animated film.

Haha!

Another fun day at El Capitan! I love that place :-)

Halloween
Georgie is obsessed with mermaids! She talks about them all the time. What to be for Halloween was a no brainer :-)

We had a couple opportunities to wear the costume! First for the Chick Fil A harvest night, then for her Halloween party at school, and finally for trick or treating at home. Georgie was super excited that her bestest friend, Cora, and her family were able to join us for CFA and for Halloween night. Even Casey and his girlfriend Maria joined us for ToT'ing and unseasonal, but still fun, sparklers in the backyard. Brett made up the slack by passing out candy while we canvassed the neighborhood for sweets.

A mermaid  and a bride at CFA

At school for the costume parade

We carved our pumpkin in about 10 mins! G wanted circle eyes, a happy smile and teeth :-)

I thought Maria's makeup was so cool!

Ready for the candy grab

Theater night: The Woman in Black
I had no idea what this one was about going in. Sometimes I read up, usually I don't. Odd show really. Only two actors-- both older men speaking in English accents-- and a very sparse stage. I must admit that the first 10 mins of the show I honestly thought that it might be the first one we'd walk out of at intermission. But then it went on and I started getting hooked. As it turned out, I really enjoyed it! It was entertaining and a bit scary. Really fun night with Mom!

Happy Birthday Casey!
Oh my, how did it happen? My younger son is now 22 yrs old! Amazing.

Uh... yeah, the cake only has two candles on it because I could only find too candles... sorry Casey. Not quite as exciting as last year but we're still thrilled you were born. Love you!